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Medicare: Colonoscopy Cost

Preventives screenings are covered by Medicare and they are covered by all health insurance plans as a result of Obamacare.  This means a person should have no co-pay and no deductible cost when...

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Preventive Screening Tests: How often are they covered?

Medicare now has a long list of preventive screenings that are covered at no cost to the patient.  But how often can you get these preventive screening tests?  The answer varies from test to test. I...

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Durable Medical Equipment: Read the contract!

Read the small print when signing for durable medical equipment.  If you don’t pay attention, it could cost you a lot of money. Not reading the small print is costing a client of mine $715.08 – and I...

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24-Hour Hospital stay: $126,000 bill !

When you spend the night in the hospital, you would assume you had been “admitted” to the hospital – but you could be wrong.  And this definition of your status could cost you thousands of dollars if...

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How Medicare Works with Other Insurance

How does Medicare work with other insurance coverage, such as a group health plan from a former employer or union? This is an important question because it determines whether your medical bills are...

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Working Past 65: Delayed Medicare Enrollment

People can delay enrollment in Medicare Part B if they are working beyond their 65th birthday or are covered by their spouse’s employer health insurance. But once they want to get their Medicare...

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Who gets help with their Medicare premium and drug costs?

Low-income Medicare beneficiaries get help with their Medicare Part B premium and their prescription drug costs.  Income levels that qualify for help have been raised for 2013. Anyone on Medicare with...

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Cold Calls to Medicare Beneficiaries are Unethical

Cold calling Medicare beneficiaries is against Medicare rules, but this being a slow time of year for insurance agents, seniors are getting calls that might disturb and/or confuse them.

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Help For Low-Income Seniors in Jeopardy

Low-Income seniors will lose Medicare help they receive due to an error of omission in Washington - even though both political parties think the financial assistance program should continue.

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Picking a Medicare Part D Plan

People who take only a few generic drugs will probably choose the lowest-cost Part D plan. But people who take brand drugs, especially expensive ones, need to do some research using the Medicare.gov...

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Medicare Advantage Cuts: Bad news or not?

The Obama administration has proposed payment cuts for Medicare Advantage plans in 2015. This could mean big changes for $0 premium plans in Arizona and around the country – or maybe not.

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Smaller Medicare Advantage networks coming to your town?

Smaller provider networks could be in the cards for Medicare Advantage plans due to payment reductions from Medicare. Smaller networks are usually lower-cost and this may be a necessity in the future.

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Medicare Advantage Enrollment: 30% Increase Since Obamacare

More than 14 million Medicare beneficiaries are now enrolled in private Medicare Advantage plans, up 30 percent since 2010 in spite of concerns about payment changes enacted in the Affordable Care Act.

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Help For Low-Income Medicare Beneficiaries in 2014

People on Medicare with low income can get help paying their Medicare Part B premium and possibly their Medicare co-pays and deductibles. It all depends on how low their income is.

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Help For Part D Drug Costs in 2014

Help for Part D drug costs is a different program from the Medicare Savings Program that helps people with Medicare costs. Help for drug costs can be applied for at SSA.gov, while the Medicare Savings...

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What’s the future for Medicare Advantage?

The New York Times has an article about how payment cuts to Medicare Advantage plans are raising questions about the future of Medicare Advantage.

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Turning 65: Do you need to enroll in Medicare?

Every day 10,000 American baby-boomers turn 65 .  Most will enroll in Medicare, but many will not. Not everyone needs to enroll in Medicare because some people continue working and are covered by their...

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Doctors Are Not Dropping Medicare

Don’t believe the rumors about doctors no longer taking Medicare patients. The numbers don’t lie.  Here are some infographics from the Kaiser Family Foundation that show the reality.   Here is a map of...

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No More Limits on Physical Therapy

A New York Times articles says Medicare has ended limits on how much physical therapy a person can receive. The rules used to be that if a person receiving physical therapy was not improving, Medicare...

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No Cuts for 2015 Medicare Advantage

CMS has announced that payments to Medicare Advantage plans will increase by 0.4% in 2015. This is a reversal of proposed cuts that were opposed by Republicans and Democrats in Congress.

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